Safety constructions for refrigerators



Jan. 20, 1959 J. SCITES SAFETY CONSTRUCTIONS FOR REFRIGERATORS FiledJuly 2. 1957 5 Sheets-Sheet 1 TS--1 TE, 2 TE- 5 //0 V4 fl //7 J0; 50 ms;

' ATTORNEY Jan. 20, 1959 J. SCITES 2,869,486

SAFETY CONSTRUCTIONS FOR REFRIGERATORS Filed July 2, 1957 I 3Sheets-Sheet 2 W i? 43 E C INVENTOR Hi J0; 56/ 7A2 ATTORNEY UnitedStates Patent C) "cc SAFETY CONSTRUCTIONS FOR REFRIGERATORS Joe Scites,Toler, Ky., assignor of one-half to Ida Tuggle, Portsmouth, Va.

Application July 2, 1957, Serial No. 669,579

3 Claims. (Cl. 109-635) The present invention relates to a safetyconstruction for refrigerators and it consists in the combinations,constructions and arrangements of parts herein described and claimed.

Generally there is provided in a refrigerator construction a main doorhaving a latch provided with a handle which extends through the frontwall of the door and second handle which extends through the inner faceof the door, both handles being operative to cause the latch tofunction. In addition, there is provided a platform which is hingedlymounted within the refrigerator adjacent to the bottom thereof. Theplatform is provided with novel mechanism which, when a Weight is placedthereon, prevents the closing of the main door of the refrigerator andat the same time acts to open an emergency door at the rear of therefrigerator. The apparatus is such that a child entering therefrigerator will cause through its Weight a downward movement of theplatform which thus opens the emergency door to allow air to enter therefrigerator and at the same time projects forwardly a bar which, inturn, prevents the closing of the main refrigerator door. As anadditional safety factor, even if the main door should be closed inspite of the mechanism operated by the movement of the platform, asecond or inside handle is provided for the latch of the main door sothat anyone entrapped within the refrigerator may utilize such insidehandle to operate the latch of the main door and thus easily escape.

It is accordingly an object of the invention to provide a safety meansfor a refrigerator which automatically prevents the closing of the mainrefrigerator door so long as a person remains inside the refrigerator.

Another object of the invention is to provide, in an apparatus of thecharacter set forth, a novel safety handle for the latch of arefrigerator door.

A further object of the invention is the provision, in an apparatus ofthe character set forth, of safety means operative without the necessityof outside power.

A still further object of the invention is to provide a structure of thecharacter set forth which is simple in construction, inexpensive tomanufacture and yet effective and efficient in use.

Other and further objects of the invention will become apparent from areading of the following specification taken in conjunction with thedrawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a front elcvational view of an embodiment of the invention,

Figure 2 is a side elevational view thereof,

Figure 3 is a rear elevational view of the device illustratedin Figuresland 2,

Figure 4 is an enlarged sectional view takenalong line 4-4 of Figure 1,and showing certain doors forming parts of the invention in closedcondition,

Figure 5 is a view similar to Figure 4 but somewhat reduced andillustrating the aforesaid doors in opened condition,

Patented Jan. 20, 1959 Figure 6 is a fragmentary sectional view takenalong line 6-6 of Figure 4,

Figure 7 is a view similar to Figure 6 but illustrating certain doorsshown in Figure 6 in opened condition,

Figure 8 is a fragmentary sectional view taken along line 88 of Figure4,

Figure 9 is a fragmentary sectional view taken along line 99 of Figure 4with a latch forming a part of the invention shown in locked condition,

Figure 10 is a view similar to Figure 9 but showing the latch inunlocked condition, and Figure 11 is a fragmentary sectional view takenalong line 1111 of Figure 9.

Referring more particularly to the drawings, there is shown therein arefrigerator provided with a front wall 10, side walls 11 and 12 and arear wall 13, the front wall 10 being provided with a main doorgenerally indicated at 14.

The door 14 is hinged, as indicated at 15, adjacent the side wall 12 andthe side wall 11 is provided with a keeper plate 16 and alatch-receiving opening 17. The door 14 is of hollow construction and isprovided with an outer wall 18 and an inner wall 19 which areinterconnected by means of end walls 20 and 21. A bracket 22 extendsbetween the front and rear walls 18 and 19, respectively, in spacedparallel relation to the end wall 21 and is centrally provided with anopening 23 for the passage therethrough of an elongated latch bar 24which also extends through the end wall 21 and, in locked condition,into the latch-receiving opening 17 which is aligned with a similaropening in the keeper plate 16.

A collar 25 is fixed to the bar 24 inwardly of the wall 21 and a collar26 is freely mounted upon the bar 24 adjacent the outer side of thebracket 22 and a compression spring 27 surrounds the bar 24 between thecollars 25 and 26 whereby to normally urge the latch bar 24 outwardly ofthe door 14. A pin 28 is mounted between the walls 18 and 19 and haspivotally mounted thereon a bell-crank lever having a normallyvertically extending arm 29 and a normally horizontally extending arm30. The arm 29 is bifurcated and each portion thereof is provided adcentits outer end with a longitudinal slot 31, as shown in Figures 9 and 10.The inner end of the bar 24 is provided with laterally extending pins32, as shown in Figure 4, which pins are slidable in the slots 31.

The arm 30 is provided with a pair of upwardly extending standards 33and a pin 34 extends through the upper end portions of the standards.

An outer latch handle 35 extends through an opening 36 in the outerpanel 18 and is pivotally connected at its inner end to the pin 34between the standards 33. An inner latch handle 37 extends through anopening 38 in the inner panel 19 and is likewise pivotally connected tothe pin 34 between the standards 33. A conventional door handle 39 isalso provided on the outer face of the door 14.

In the operation of this portion of the invention, it will be apparentthat by lifting upwardly upon either latch handle 35 or latch handle 37,that such latch handles will abut against the upper edge of itsrespective opening 36 or 38 to thus open the same and cause a downwardmovement of the arm 30 and a consequent counterclockwise movement of thearm 29 as viewed, for example, in Figures 9 and 10, thus causing thelatch bar 24 to move inwardly of the door against the action of thespring 27 thus disengaging the same from the latch-receiving opening 17and keeper plate 16 as shown in Figures 5 and 10. Release of either ofthe thus operated latch handles 35 and 37 will cause the spring 27 toagain move the latch bar 24 outwardly so that,

if the door is closed as shown in Figure 4, for example, the latch barwill extend through the keeper plate into the opening 17 to thus lockthe door. However, it will be apparent that a child or other personfinding himself locked within the refrigerator may merely lift the innerhandle 37 to thus unlatch the doora feat not possible in the standardrefrigerator.

An additional safety feature is illustrated particularly in Figures to8, inclusive, and it will be seen that there is provided a bottom wall39 which is conventional. A horizontal partition member 44 is mounted invertically spaced relation to the bottom 39 and its forward edgeterminates inwardly of the inner panel 19. of the door 14 when thelatter is in its closed position.

Hinged, as indicatedat 41, to the side wall 12 immediately above thepartition 40. is a platform 42 which is centrally provided adjacent itsfree edge with an opening 43. An opening 44 is provided in the partition40 in vertical registry with the opening 43 and a vertically extendingpin 45 is affixed to the bottom 39 and extends upwardly through theopenings 44 and 43. A collar 46 is slidably mounted upon the pin 45 andnormally bears against the underside of the platform 42 due to theaction of a compression spring 47 which surrounds the pin 45 and bearsat its lower end against the bottom 39 on a fixed collar 48, the upperend of the spring 47 bearing against the underside of the collar 46.

Centrally affixed to the platform 42, as indicated at 49, is avertically dependent arm 50 which extends freely through an opening 51provided in the partition 40.

Slidably extending through suitable openings in vertical brackets 52 anda vertical partition 53 is an elongated dog 54 which is normally urgedin an outward direction by means of a compression spring 55 and collar56. An elongated rearwardly extending dog 57 extends through suitableopenings in brackets 58 mounted upon the bottom 39 and through anopening 59 in the rear wall 13.

The rear wall 13 is provided with an emergency cover 60 which is hinged,as indicated at 61, to the outer face of the rear wall 13 and normally,through gravity, remains in a vertical position to cover air inletopenings 62 in such rear wall 13. The dog 57 is normally urged in anoutward direction by means of a compression spring 64 and collar 65.Links 66 interconnect the lower end of the arm 50 with the inner end ofthe dog 57 while links 67 interconnect the lower end of the arm 50 withthe inner end of the dog 54. The spring 47 is slightly stronger than thecombined strength of the springs 55 and 64.

In the operation of this last-described portion of the invention, itwill be apparent that if a weight, even that of a small child, is placedupon the platform 42, the latter will swing downwardly against theaction of the spring 47 thus causing a downward movement of the arm 50and, through the linkage 66 and 67, an outward movement of the dogs 54and 57. When the dog 54 is in its outward position, as shown in Figure7, it will be apparent that the door 14 may not be closed since it willabut against the outer end of the dog 54 and be thereby prevented frommoving inwardly to a latchable position. Likewise, when the dog 54 is inits outward position it will move the emergency door 60 outwardly, asshown in Figure 7, to thereby uncover the inlet openings 62 and to thusallow air to enter the opening 62 and thus pass upwardly between theouter edge of the partition 40 and the inner wall 19 of the door eventhough the latter become closed. If the door 14 is openand it must besince it is prevented from fully closing by means of the dog -54then airmay circulate entirely through the refrigerator and thus providesufficient oxygen for a child or other person standing upon the platform42. It will also be apparent that the platform 42 is of such size thatit is impossible for anyone entering the refrigerator not to place hisweight thereon thus making this portion of the device entirely automaticin its functioning.

While but one form of the invention has been shown and described herein,it will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art that many minormodifications may be made without departing from the spirit of theinvention or the scope of the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. In a refrigerator having a top, a bottom, side walls, a rear wall, afront wall, and an outwardly opening main door in said front wall, theprovision of safety means for said refrigerator, said means comprising ahorizontal partition mounted in said refrigerator in spaced relation tosaid bottom, a platform hinged at one of its edges to one of said sidewalls immediately above said partition, said rear wall having an openingtherein, an emergency door for said opening hinged at its upper edge tothe outer face of said rear wall, a pair of dogs mounted in saidrefrigerator below said partition, spring means normally holding saiddogs in retracted position, and means operable by downward movement ofsaid platform for extending said dogs whereby one of said dogs abutssaid emergency door to open the same and the other of said dogs abutsthe main door to prevent the closing thereof.

2. In a refrigerator having a top, a bottom, side walls, a rear wall, afront wall, and an outwardly opening main door in said front wall, theprovision of safety means for said refrigerator, said means comprising ahorizontal partition mounted in said refrigerator in spaced relation tosaid bottom, a platform hinged at one of its edges to one of said sidewalls immediately above said partition, said rear wall having an openingtherein, an emergency door for said opening hinged at its upper edge tothe outer face of said rear wall, an elongated forwardly extending dogmounted in said refrigerator below said partition, a like rearwardlyextending dog likewise mounted below said partition, a verticallydependent arm centrally affixed to said platform and extending freelythrough said partition, links interconnecting the inner ends of saiddogs with the lower end of said dependent arm, and spring means fornormally retaining said dogs in retracted positions, said dogs adaptedwhen extended by weight upon said platform to abut the inner faces ofsaid doors whereby to open said emergency door and to prevent closing ofsaid main door.

3. A device as defined in claim 2 wherein said spring meansfornormally-retaining said dogs in retracted position comprises avertically extending pin affixed to said bottom and extending freelythrough said partition and said platform, a collar freely mounted onsaid pin in abutting relation to the underside of said platform, and acompression spring surrounding said pin and hearing at its lower endagainst said collar.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS496,570 Lamberson May 2, 1893 2,507,289 Williams May 9, 1950 2,733,090Coplen Ian. 31, 1956 5 2,778,326 Guzik Jan. 22, 1957 2,783,722 FletcherMar. 5, 1 957

